I couldn’t do it.
Except now I keep thinking about all the ways I could have.
“It’s always the anticipation that gets most folks,” Outdoor Chattanooga’s Terri Chapin says about learning to roll a kayak 360 degrees using nothing but skills and snaps, hip snaps that is, though I kept wanting to use my upper body too. Needless to say, my hip snaps need some work. As if that wasn’t apparent from my “pillow” time trying to snap myself back up from the surface level of the water-not even from a “disorienting” upside-down underwater position-it was glaringly obvious as I tried to practice throwing my hips in my kitchen later that night. Can someone say YouTube video? Actually, it may have been more helpful for those trying to learn than the hundreds of others already out there.
Jennifer Bardoner learns to roll with it with Outdoor Chattanooga“We see so many folks who watch a YouTube video and about drown themselves in a pool, then come back with their tails between their legs,” Chapin says. “I think the key is getting proper, formal instruction from the get-go. You’re able to progress better; you don’t have to take time to unlearn bad habits.” Even during my short stint, I overheard a woman signing in who was eager to put what she knew into practice. She had watched plenty of YouTube videos. This was her second class. “I don’t think you can start counting until your 10th class,” Abby Greenbaum tells the woman. Greenbaum, who took the course over the winter, was there for her 10th class; she still couldn’t roll. “It typically takes about, on average, three sessions to get a roll once you start concentrating on it,” says Chapin.
The roll is the last step. Outdoor Chattanooga’s come as you want, go at your own pace class series also covers how to hold and use your paddle, (I once canoed myself across the same lake at Chester Frost the classes are held on, but I still can’t keep the extremely sensitive whitewater kayaks in a straight line.) buddy rescue, hip snaps and how to quickly get out of the slightly claustrophobic craft it took you at least 40 seconds to fold yourself into. But one of the most important things participants learn is how to be comfortable in that slightly claustrophobic craft just above the surface of the water-and under it. I only got to do two classes, so I didn’t master that yet either.